Looking Back at 2006: NPI Milestones
What a year it has been.
The first installment in our retrospective series looking back at the last twelve months is an overview of the year's most significant achievements, accomplishments, and noteworthy events. So as we look forward to more growth in 2007, here's a look back at our 2006 milestones.
January 3rd, 2006: NPI announces the first ever David Neiwert Awards to honor the achievements and accomplishments of the Pacific Northwest's most active progressive bloggers for the previous year (2005).
January 5th-6th: The first ever Pacific Northwest Progressive Bloggers' Conference is held in Olympia, Washington, organized by NPI. It includes a forum on Internet communications and workshops for attending bloggers. Darcy Burner is the featured guest speaker.
January 18th, 2006: NPI releases its first ever podcast, hosted by Andrew Tsao, and announces the return of the Special Projects section, as well as the launch of the newly redesigned Audio Archive, to house NPI's podcasts.
January 31st, 2006: Pacific Northwest Portal celebrates its one year anniversary and NPI releases a commemorative podcast to mark the occasion.
February 4th, 2006: Permanent Defense celebrates its four year anniversary.
February 9th, 2006: NPI releases a minor upgrade for the Official Blog (Version 3.3), including the new Infocenter, which houses links to NPI's Atom and RSS feeds and allows readers to subscribe to an email digest of the blog right from the sidebar.
March 29th, 2006: NPI's Official Blog celebrates its two year anniversary.
April 6th, 2006: Markos Moulitsas mentions NPI's Pacific Northwest Portal on the Daily Kos front page on the eve of his arrival in the Pacific Northwest.
April 7th-8th, 2006: NPI helps coordinate and facilitate the Pacific Northwest segment of Markos and Jerome Armstrong's tour to promote their new book, Crashing the Gate. NPI later releases a podcast interview with both authors.
May 24th, 2006: NPI launches "Seaside" (Version 4.0), a major revamp of Pacific Northwest Portal. The new version of the website is sleeker, edgier, faster, and more reliable. Compatibility is greatly strengthened as the site is made more Mac and Linux friendly.
June 2nd-3rd, 2006: NPI Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve live blogs the Washington State Democratic Convention in Yakima on the Official Blog.
June 5th, 2006: NPI welcomes new member Larry Kalb as its Senior Policy Analyst on Healthcare.
June 6th, 2006: NPI breaks the news that Tim Eyman has failed to gather enough signatures to put his pro-discrimination ballot measure, Referendum 65, on the November ballot.
June 8th-11th, 2006: NPI Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve covers the first ever YearlyKos convention live from Las Vegas, Nevada.
July 19th, 2006: NPI and Permanent Defense break the news that Eyman's Initiative 917 may be in limbo until the end of September after the Secretary of State announces just a few days prior that Eyman may not have submitted enough signature to qualify for the ballot.
July 31st, 2006: NPI provides live coverage of President Clinton's visit to Seattle to raise money for Maria Cantwell and Jim McDermott.
August 3rd, 2006: Senator Maria Cantwell authors a special guest post on NPI's Official Blog announcing her opposition to a Republican attempt to sneakily cut the state's minimum wage. The post is subsequently picked up by dozens of other blogs and news aggregators.
August 23rd, 2006: NPI celebrates its three year anniversary as its executive director represents the organization in Olympia observing the signature verification process for Tim Eyman's endangered Initiative 917.
August 30th, 2006: NPI launches Northwest Roots (NWroots) an all in one service for e-mail, instant messaging (for real time conversations over the Net) and personal/event planning.
September 1st-3rd, 2006: NPI's Executive Director live blogs the WakeUp WalMart "Change Wal-Mart, Change America" tour from the road and at a Town Hall event in Seattle.
September 7th, 2006: NPI and Permanent Defense celebrate victory as Tim Eyman's Initiative 917 crashes in flames and fails to qualify for the ballot - leaving Eyman shut out for the year.
September 19th, 2006: NPI provides live coverage on primary election night and cheers the defeat of right wing attempts to take over the courts.
September 27th, 2006: The Democratic torchbearer in the 8th, Darcy Burner, posts to DailyKos about the importance of protecting Net Neutrality, pointing to NPI as an example of the power of an open, democratic Internet.
October 5th, 2006: Democratic 45th District state senatorial candidate Eric Oemig authors a guest post on NPI's Official Blog. Oemig later goes on to win in the general election against Republican Toby Nixon a month later.
October 10th, 2006: Darcy Burner again mentions NPI and its executive director in a debate with incumbent Republican Dave Reichert in Bellevue at the Meydenbauer Center. The event is later broadcast on TVW.
October 20th, 2006: Adding to its ballot measure positions and endorsed judicial candidates, NPI releases endorsements for federal and statewide offices, affirming its support for candidates such as Peter Goldmark and Darcy Burner.
October 26th, 2006: NPI's executive director live blogs a historic campaign rally featuring Barack Obama alongside Darcy Burner and Maria Cantwell at Bellevue Community College. Thousands of Democratic activists show up to attend the massive event. Barack Obama's official website later links to the coverage.
November 7th, 2006: NPI provides continuous live coverage of the 2006 midterm elections, which are nothing less than a titanic victory for Democrats and a resounding rejection of Republicans and right wing ideology across the country. In Washington State, Senator Maria Cantwell is reelected, right wing initiatives are defeated, and Democrats add heavily to their majorities in the state Legislature. In just seventy two hours - spanning Election Day, before, and after - NPI breaks all of its traffic records.
November 30th, 2006: NPI Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve represents the organization at an FCC hearing on media ownership.
December 5th, 2006: NPI breaks the news on its podcast that Ken Hutcherson has filed a draft initiative to the Legislature to repeal ESHB 2661, the civil rights law passed in 2006 that outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
December 7th, 2006: Tim Eyman is dealt another defeat as Washington State's Supreme Court rules that Sound Transit was and is within its rights to continue collecting a local motor vehicle excise tax (MVET, or car tabs) despite the passage of Eyman's Initiative 776 in 2002.
December 27th, 2006: NPI releases its tenth and final podcast for 2006, focusing on reforming the Port of Seattle, the third in a series of podcasts looking ahead to 2007.
The first installment in our retrospective series looking back at the last twelve months is an overview of the year's most significant achievements, accomplishments, and noteworthy events. So as we look forward to more growth in 2007, here's a look back at our 2006 milestones.
January 3rd, 2006: NPI announces the first ever David Neiwert Awards to honor the achievements and accomplishments of the Pacific Northwest's most active progressive bloggers for the previous year (2005).
January 5th-6th: The first ever Pacific Northwest Progressive Bloggers' Conference is held in Olympia, Washington, organized by NPI. It includes a forum on Internet communications and workshops for attending bloggers. Darcy Burner is the featured guest speaker.
January 18th, 2006: NPI releases its first ever podcast, hosted by Andrew Tsao, and announces the return of the Special Projects section, as well as the launch of the newly redesigned Audio Archive, to house NPI's podcasts.
January 31st, 2006: Pacific Northwest Portal celebrates its one year anniversary and NPI releases a commemorative podcast to mark the occasion.
February 4th, 2006: Permanent Defense celebrates its four year anniversary.
February 9th, 2006: NPI releases a minor upgrade for the Official Blog (Version 3.3), including the new Infocenter, which houses links to NPI's Atom and RSS feeds and allows readers to subscribe to an email digest of the blog right from the sidebar.
March 29th, 2006: NPI's Official Blog celebrates its two year anniversary.
April 6th, 2006: Markos Moulitsas mentions NPI's Pacific Northwest Portal on the Daily Kos front page on the eve of his arrival in the Pacific Northwest.
April 7th-8th, 2006: NPI helps coordinate and facilitate the Pacific Northwest segment of Markos and Jerome Armstrong's tour to promote their new book, Crashing the Gate. NPI later releases a podcast interview with both authors.
May 24th, 2006: NPI launches "Seaside" (Version 4.0), a major revamp of Pacific Northwest Portal. The new version of the website is sleeker, edgier, faster, and more reliable. Compatibility is greatly strengthened as the site is made more Mac and Linux friendly.
June 2nd-3rd, 2006: NPI Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve live blogs the Washington State Democratic Convention in Yakima on the Official Blog.
June 5th, 2006: NPI welcomes new member Larry Kalb as its Senior Policy Analyst on Healthcare.
June 6th, 2006: NPI breaks the news that Tim Eyman has failed to gather enough signatures to put his pro-discrimination ballot measure, Referendum 65, on the November ballot.
June 8th-11th, 2006: NPI Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve covers the first ever YearlyKos convention live from Las Vegas, Nevada.
July 19th, 2006: NPI and Permanent Defense break the news that Eyman's Initiative 917 may be in limbo until the end of September after the Secretary of State announces just a few days prior that Eyman may not have submitted enough signature to qualify for the ballot.
July 31st, 2006: NPI provides live coverage of President Clinton's visit to Seattle to raise money for Maria Cantwell and Jim McDermott.
August 3rd, 2006: Senator Maria Cantwell authors a special guest post on NPI's Official Blog announcing her opposition to a Republican attempt to sneakily cut the state's minimum wage. The post is subsequently picked up by dozens of other blogs and news aggregators.
August 23rd, 2006: NPI celebrates its three year anniversary as its executive director represents the organization in Olympia observing the signature verification process for Tim Eyman's endangered Initiative 917.
August 30th, 2006: NPI launches Northwest Roots (NWroots) an all in one service for e-mail, instant messaging (for real time conversations over the Net) and personal/event planning.
September 1st-3rd, 2006: NPI's Executive Director live blogs the WakeUp WalMart "Change Wal-Mart, Change America" tour from the road and at a Town Hall event in Seattle.
September 7th, 2006: NPI and Permanent Defense celebrate victory as Tim Eyman's Initiative 917 crashes in flames and fails to qualify for the ballot - leaving Eyman shut out for the year.
September 19th, 2006: NPI provides live coverage on primary election night and cheers the defeat of right wing attempts to take over the courts.
September 27th, 2006: The Democratic torchbearer in the 8th, Darcy Burner, posts to DailyKos about the importance of protecting Net Neutrality, pointing to NPI as an example of the power of an open, democratic Internet.
October 5th, 2006: Democratic 45th District state senatorial candidate Eric Oemig authors a guest post on NPI's Official Blog. Oemig later goes on to win in the general election against Republican Toby Nixon a month later.
October 10th, 2006: Darcy Burner again mentions NPI and its executive director in a debate with incumbent Republican Dave Reichert in Bellevue at the Meydenbauer Center. The event is later broadcast on TVW.
October 20th, 2006: Adding to its ballot measure positions and endorsed judicial candidates, NPI releases endorsements for federal and statewide offices, affirming its support for candidates such as Peter Goldmark and Darcy Burner.
October 26th, 2006: NPI's executive director live blogs a historic campaign rally featuring Barack Obama alongside Darcy Burner and Maria Cantwell at Bellevue Community College. Thousands of Democratic activists show up to attend the massive event. Barack Obama's official website later links to the coverage.
November 7th, 2006: NPI provides continuous live coverage of the 2006 midterm elections, which are nothing less than a titanic victory for Democrats and a resounding rejection of Republicans and right wing ideology across the country. In Washington State, Senator Maria Cantwell is reelected, right wing initiatives are defeated, and Democrats add heavily to their majorities in the state Legislature. In just seventy two hours - spanning Election Day, before, and after - NPI breaks all of its traffic records.
November 30th, 2006: NPI Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve represents the organization at an FCC hearing on media ownership.
December 5th, 2006: NPI breaks the news on its podcast that Ken Hutcherson has filed a draft initiative to the Legislature to repeal ESHB 2661, the civil rights law passed in 2006 that outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
December 7th, 2006: Tim Eyman is dealt another defeat as Washington State's Supreme Court rules that Sound Transit was and is within its rights to continue collecting a local motor vehicle excise tax (MVET, or car tabs) despite the passage of Eyman's Initiative 776 in 2002.
December 27th, 2006: NPI releases its tenth and final podcast for 2006, focusing on reforming the Port of Seattle, the third in a series of podcasts looking ahead to 2007.
